Mediawan closed a partnership with Misfits Entertainment through a majority stake acquisition. Successful and well-known company Misfits will make a splash at Sundance 2024 Film Festival by premiering the highly-anticipated documentary "Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story" on the Opening Night Gala. Founded in 2016, Misfits Entertainment is a London-based production company, specializing in producing premium content for the international marketplace. The company is run by Andee (Dee) Ryder and Ian Bonhôte, who have a strong track record in founding and running top production companies as well as producing together the highly commercial scripted feature film "Alleycats."
Misfits is a major player on the documentary scene. The company’s track record includes the double-BAFTA-nominated feature film "McQueen," directed by Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui (2019), and "Rising Phoenix" about the Paralympic movement, winner of two Emmy Awards (2020). More recently, Misfits produced "Kingdom of Dreams," a four-part premium non-fiction series about the fashion industry which sold to 169 territories across the globe and "The Contestant" which premiered at TIFF (2023), then swiftly sold to Hulu and is due for release in 2024. While Misfits will continue to produce high end docs, Dee and Ian will also expand their fiction slate, which includes four upcoming feature films.
This acquisition marks a new milestone in the strategic deployment of Mediawan internationally and confirms the group’s ambition to develop its network of production companies worldwide, across all genres and formats in all territories. Misfits’ creative vision and strategic expertise represent a major asset to shape ambitious projects within Mediawan for a premium global market. Mediawan, already present in the scripted market in the UK with Drama Republic (The English, The Lovers, One Day) and with Animation specialist Wildseed Studios (Dodo, Tuff Pom), now also becomes a key player in documentary production with Misfits.
“We are delighted to welcome Misfits in the group! This new partnership represents a significant opportunity to strengthen Mediawan’s international footprint and grow our premium documentary slate. Mediawan has had big hits in the documentary genre in the last few years, including The Stadium (a Black Dynamite production for Paramount +), Orelsan – Don’t ever show this to anyone (a Troisième Oeil production for Prime Video), Gregory (an Imagissime production for Netflix)… And to build on, we are thrilled to greet new creative teams within Mediawan, such as Oscar-winning producer and filmmaker Kevin Macdonald (via the Joint Venture with Plan B) and now Misfits. The excellence of their creative vision, as well as their reputation as producers are in complete alignment with our ambition and our commitment to the careful nurturing of top talents,” said Elisabeth d’Arvieu, CEO of Mediawan Pictures.
“We are thrilled to join the Mediawan group. It was apparent to us early on in our conversations that Mediawan shared our ambition and vision for the future of Misfits Entertainment. With our genre agnostic approach to filmmaking, we are proud of what we have achieved in the first few years of our company in the international marketplace. The partnership will help us to grow our documentary team and support us to make bigger strides in the scripted global marketplace to align with what we have achieved in documentary,” added Dee Ryder and Ian Bonhôte, Misfits Entertainment.
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